One day, if I find the motivation, I'll write up the experience of sleeping rough in the UK and hitching from town to town. 2 winters spent outside, 30 months in total.
A country is full of so many people, such incredible diversity, and yet some patterns as well... groups always seem to form of similar types. It's deeply fascinating stuff just to meet so many people and just talk.
At nights I'd sleep in fields (outside small towns) or in building sites (site offices have a heater and kettle and were usually unlocked - perfect for winter).
During the deep of winter I did the most travelling... I'd try and hitch for most of the day as it would mean somewhere warm for those hours. Scotland to London and back was a regular whenever it snowed.
For money I did odd-jobs along the way, but mostly I would go to student unions (always potential to work for bands playing live - sell their merchandise when they were coming off-stage) and just meet people, have a drink, and that would lead to a sofa to crash on, a shower and cheese on toast in the morning.
It's a very long story, mostly blurred together with some parts more memorable than the others (the extreme lows and highs - hearing gun shots in Manchester, being mugged in Birmingham, falling in love in Glasgow, shivering through the first nights of snow, etc).
One also acquires an incredible awareness for a town, I could be dropped anywhere and know which way the town centre was (look for the lay of the land, the river and the basin), where the rail station was, where the bus stations are, the key routes in and out, and where McDonald's was likely to be (the only place to get a hot meal at 6am-7am). That is a wonderful skill which has proved useful almost everywhere around (the world except the USA - you guys just drop your cities anywhere, and damn the land).